WND EXCLUSIVE

San Diego now banishes 'Founding Fathers'

Takes political correctness 'to a whole new extreme'

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially.

In a letter to San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, PJI Senior Staff Attorney Matthew B. McReynolds explained the city’s new “Visual and Correspondence Style Guidelines” held a number of novel demands for city employees.

Including the banishment of “a number of words and phrases widely accepted in the English language.”

“Many Americans, including city employees, will no doubt be surprised to learn that the city considers them biased for merely mentioning ordinary words and phrases like ‘the common man,’ ‘mankind,’ ‘manmade’ and ‘man up,’ to name a few of the manual’s parade of horribles,” McReynolds wrote.

“Even more concerning is the manual’s promotion of style over substance, to the point that employees are encouraged to omit or alter relevant research, based on subjective interpretations as to whether it includes biased or non-inclusive language.”

He continued, “Most alarming, though, is the guidelines directive, on page 76, that city employees should refrain from mentioning those to whom we owe our most fundamental freedoms, the Founding Fathers. The manual’s inane attempt to recast the fathers as simply the ‘Founders’ reaches a level of political correctness, censorship and insensitivity toward time-honored American values that is indefensible.”

He said his organization has found “no less than 1,500 separate instances in which the Supreme Court and lower courts have invoked the ‘Founding Fathers.'”

“Their contributions are undeniable, and their voice indispensable to understanding good government,” he wrote.

Dacus told WND, “The city of San Diego has taken the PC movement to a whole new extreme, and it demonstrates how dangerous that kind of dogma can be to the First Amendment.”

The city did not respond to WND requests, through telephone messages and email, for a comment.

But PJI noted in a section on “Bias-Free Language,” the city tells workers to eliminate from their vocabulary a number of words and phrases considered gender biased.

Noting that President’s Day soon in approaching, Dacus,said, “At a time set aside to honor American icons to whom we owe our constitutional freedoms, it is offensive and indefensible that the city of San Diego is directing employees not to even mention the Founding Fathers. We are calling on the mayor to immediately retract these guidelines and reassure city employees that they will not be punished for being patriotic. We cannot allow this type of censorship and PC insanity to destroy our free speech.”

He told WND his organization is promising to represent, without charge, any city employees who are punished for their patriotic expression.

McReynold’s letter offered an extended list of formal references to the “Founding Fathers,” and said a “more complete list” would take hundreds of pages.

“We trust you will act swiftly to correct the appalling notion that city personnel should not quote the foregoing authoritites or otherwise refer to the Founding Fathers,” he wrote.

“Please notify us by the end of this week as to the steps you are taking to ensure that employees’ speech rights are protected and the city of San Diego does not persist in discouraging patriotic expression,” the letter said.